Shining a light on prostate cancer

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If a new and less invasive treatment lives up to expectations, sufferers such as Andrew Lloyd Webber could expect fewer side effects

Before Andrew Lloyd Webber announced this week that he was suffering from the “early stages” of prostate cancer, one of the treatments that he might have discussed with his doctors would have been robotic radical prostatectomy — the removal of the entire prostate gland using keyhole surgery. However, the prognosis is rather bleak — a 5-20 per cent chance of suffering from incontinence and a 30-70 per cent chance of impotence.

The composer would do well to cast his eyes over a piece in last week’s issue of the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association, which has shocked prostate